Born through the ballot, Pakistan overcame the bullet to become the homeland of the Muslims of South Asia. The great founder of the country, Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, fought for a free Pakistan where all its citizens could be equal before the law enabling them to reach the heights of economic empowerment.

Quaid e Azam’s death robbed Pakistan of a towering personality. It fell prey to the conspiracies of the unelected power brokers in the military and bureaucracy. They intrigued to rob the Pakistani people of their democratic rights and to re write history.

The torch of Quaid e Azam was passed to the Quaid e Awam who picked up the pieces of the Country after the shameful surrender in the fields of Dacca. The country began to prosper with reforms benefiting the downtrodden and under privileged.

MILITARTY CLIQUE

But the military bureaucratic complex continued to conspire. It took advantage of international concerns about Pakistan’s nuclear program to kill democracy and the democratic leader.

The workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party, its democratic allies and the people confronted the dark night of terror to save freedom, fundamental rights and the economic emancipation of the downtrodden people.

Consequently, elections were held in 1988. Tragically, the full transfer of power failed to take place. The military leadership, which had now taken power even from the bureaucratic class, destabilised the elected and representative governments of the people. They fought with their own handpicked premiers as well as with the choice of the people showing an inability to share power or keep the national interest before them.

Once again the spectre of dictatorship rose on the horizon. Having seized power through the bullet, the dictatorship is now seeking to institutionalise dictatorship.

FREE WILL OF THE PEOPLE

The new weapon against the people of Pakistan is the rigging of General Elections. This is done through computer hacking into the Election Commission computers where results are changed through virtual cast of bogus ballots.

The rigging of elections has robbed the Pakistani people of hope in the ballot, which created Pakistan, as a redeemer. Unless this hope is recreated, the malaise will deepen.

PPP electoral Reform Package addresses the issues of enfranchisement of the people through transparent electoral process.

ELECTION GUIDELINES

Pakistan Peoples Party election proposals include guidelines to restore to the public the sanctity of the ballot without which the forces of freedom, of fundamental human rights and economic emancipation will continue to elude the country of the means to advancement.

PEACE

The oppressors of the people used religious parties as well as the strategic location of Pakistan to exploit international opinion in a bid to gain legitimacy. Their politics gave birth to violence and the kalashinkov culture.

An earlier military dictator used Afghanistan’s critical importance to the world community to perpetuate his own dictatorship. Now another military dictator is attempting to use Afghanistan to perpetuate himself at the cost of the fundamental and human rights, including economic rights, of the people of the Federation.

The concentration of absolute power is detrimental to the welfare and prosperity of the Federation. It threatens to give birth to ethnicity, poverty and violence. It threatens to make Pakistan another Yugoslavia. Every patriotic citizen must rise up to support the PPP Parliamentarians in saving Pakistan from an unfortunate fate.

The former Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of military dominance. Other countries collapsed under the weight of civil war leading to massive bloodshed played out on international television screens. To save Pakistan from such a calamity towards which the absolute concentration of power threatens to lead the Nation, we can remember the words of our great leader Quaid e Azam.

He said, “Pakistan must seek peace within and peace without”. The PPP Parliamentarians pledges to give Pakistan and the region “Peace within and peace without” with honour and dignity.

Religion

The message of Islam is the message of Peace. It is a message of brother hood and love. The holy saints in the valley of the Indus preached a message of love and compassion. These are symbolised in the words and verses of Data Sahib, Shah Abdul Latif of Bhittai, Baba Farid Ganj and Lal Shahbaz Qalander.

The sufi saints adopted simple means of living and high thinking. Its time we did the same.

The PPP Parliamentarians commits itself to religious tolerance. Religious beliefs of individual citizens have little to do with the business of the state.

Terrorism

Terrorism was born in the bowels of dictatorship which recruited, trained, armed and financed extreme factions while marginalising the moderate, democratic and pluralistic forces.

History teaches us that democracies don’t go to war with each other and democracies don’t promote international terrorism. The best guarantee of a safe and secure Federation is in the values of freedom, fundamental rights and economic empowerment of the people with checks and balances that end concentration of power.

Dictatorship relabelled can only play into the hands of the underground militants and extremists who today are regrouping in Pakistan which witnessed terrible suicide bombings that shook the Nation and its markets causing greater economic impoverishment.

PPP is proud to have given Pakistan stability and the writ of the state in all its governments making the safety of citizens its top priority. It can do so again.

Poverty

The overthrow of the PPP government in 1996 led to the impoverishment of the people of Pakistan. For the first time in recorded history, mass unemployment reached such heights that people chose to commit economic suicide because they were unable to feed their families.

A country which under the PPP became one of the ten emerging capital markets of the world, attracting massive foreign investment became a barren landscape. Investors fled from the country as they were unjustly scandalised in politically motivated allegations by hostile regimes seeking to score political points.

The bill was picked up by the unfortunate people of the country whose per capita income fell as the gap between the rich and the poor widened.

The PPP had revenues to build schools, hospitals, roads and provide people with basic amenities. The regimes that replaced it froze foreign accounts, raised utility bills, retrenched hundred of thousands of employees without any benefit to the country. They brazenly cut the budgets that the PPP so painstakingly built for important programs that included education, health, women’s empowerment, youth, population control, labour and the rural poor. They did this even as they hired favourites at exorbitant salaries paid in advance.

The PPP Parliamentarians pledges to eradicate poverty by ensuring that the social sector budget is increased as is the Annual Development Plan. It is by investing in our young people that we can build a progressive and prosperous society.

Debt

The PPP was honoured to retire one billion dollars of Pakistan’s mountain of debt that crushes its people and makes it a dependent Nation. It’s the only government that ever retired capital debt.

Regimes squandered opportunities that arose where Pakistan, like Egypt and Jordan could have got the debt written off.

The PPP always took power after rulers signed agreements with international financial institutions locking it into pre fixed frameworks. As soon as the PPP strengthened the economy enabling it to negotiate a better deal with the international financial institutions, it was overthrown by the anti people forces.

Now the time has come for the people of Pakistan to support the PPP Parliamentarians with a two-thirds majority to enable it to continue its reform process to liberate the people of Pakistan from the shackles of poverty, debt and servitude. It is PPP Parliamentarians, and PPP Parliamentarians alone, which can give the country honour, dignity, respect, hope, peace, progress and prosperity.

ECONOMICS

The PPP government presided over boom economies during its three tenures in office. Sound macro economic management allows private entrepreneurs to build investment, trade and develop the economy. The PPP tripled growth rates and doubled the national revenues while enjoying lowest deficit figures and bringing in massive investment which created jobs and promoted the service industry including housing.

As the party that introduced the privatisation bill and streamlined the revenue services while creating boards at local bank branches for quick disbursement of loans, the PPP is committed to the free flow of capital. The flow of capital is the engine that drives a growing economy encouraging the youth while ending unemployment which brings misery.

PPP introduced an autonomous State Bank and a strong regulatory authority is necessary to safeguard the deposits of the working and middle classes in the banking sector. The seizure of foreign exchange reserves and collapse of cooperatives as well as investment companies when PPP was in Opposition robbed ordinary citizens.

PPP power projects, mass telephone system enabled ordinary people to set up businesses when previously power shutdowns and twenty year waiting lines for phone prevented them from success in private initiatives.

PPP focuses on making the changes that help people make successful businesses. PPP times are boom times for the business communities as well as for the labour that is absorbed by a booming market.

To support middle class purchases a Pay As You Earn Scheme (Credit Purchases) will be adopted in Government Corporations and other salaried institutions. A credit bank will be established the purpose of which will be small and medium loans to encourage instalment purchases of television, furniture, cars, houses, refrigerators and other household and daily life necessities which are too expensive for outright purchase by young and middle age purchasers. This scheme will be expanded to include non-salaried institutions gradually.

Open Minds, Open Markets, Open opportunities is our slogan as we change IOUs into MOUs.

A PPP Parliamentarians government is necessary for sound macro management as well as for investment, revenues, growth, employment and safeguarding the savings of the people.

Education

Our great martyred leader, the Quaid e Awam, believed that education was the key to empowerment of the people. He introduced free and compulsory primary education, promoted centres of excellence, created Institutes of Science and Technology and took Pakistan to the cutting edge of nuclear physics establishing centres of nuclear medicine. He set up a chain of new Universities, Medical and Engineering colleges in the neglected areas as a harbinger to a Muslim renaissance.

Western countries developed by encouraging free debate in universities of excellence which produce the men and women needed to govern great nations.

Textbooks to government primary schools will be provided free of cost while a means test will make students eligible for additional government support. Libraries will be promoted and vocational centres, on the pattern of the Computer Literacy Program, enhanced.

Internet access for government schools will enable the children of the underprivileged to access the worldwide information highway. The global language, English, will be an optional language for students to study preventing lingual apartheid where children of the rich speak English competing for world wide jobs and children of the working classes are denied that opportunity.

Seeking an age of reason and enlightenment, the PPP, which increased with extra billions education budget in its two recent terms of power, pledges to make education a top priority. It is education, and education alone that can enable our young people to realise their full potential and compete with the best that the world can produce in the field of art and science.

PPP Parliamentarians commits to its sons and daughters an education that enables a brighter future than that of their parents so that they can hold high their head in the comity of Nations.

Youth Force/Khadim e Danish

Youth are the future to whom the torch passes. In developing our children, we strengthen the foundations of our society. Involving youth in good, productive activities grooms them with a higher moral mission to serve humanity. Establishment of a Youth force, similar to the Lady Health visitors scheme, can assist in education, literacy and health enhancing literacy rates and creating social awareness.

Overseas Youth can be part of the youth force creating links between expatriate community and the foreign born new generation with their country of origin even as skills promote community welfare.

Sports training will be encouraged as well as holding of sporting tournaments.

INTERNET

The PPP heralded the information age into Pakistan with colour television, fax machines, e-mails and satellite television. It laid optic fibre lines in 1989 to promote internet connections and digitalise telecommunications. In 1993 it began computer literacy programs to herald the computer literate generation.

PPP software parks in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore will be revised. The state will actively equip the citizens to meet the demands of the future. It will give incentives for software development as well as hardware development. A special credit facility will be available for outstanding students to develop ideas in the field of artificial intelligence and the computer age. The government will supplement ordinary libraries with computer libraries and internet access.

Health

Having eliminated polio, iodised salt and inoculated children in deadly diseases, the PPP pledges investment in health. Its previous health policies won it the World Health Organisation Gold medal. PPP aspires to win more medals for health for our people believing that health is wealth. It increased health expenditures in the past seeing in a healthy body a healthy society. Elimination of lead poisoning and other simple measures can improve the quality of health with small initiatives quantifying into big results.

PPP Parliamentarians will improve government health centres and hospitals. It will establish Old Peoples Homes as well as Homes for Poor Children to aid and assist families that find such issues challenging.

Rule of Law

The basis of a civilised society lies in the rule of law. In developed countries, those who undermine the majesty of law go to prison. In our country too often the victims of those who perpetuated injustices went to prison. Each elected leader of Pakistan left office brutalised and criminalised while none of the military dictators paid a price even when they disintegrated the Nation and cannibalised the Constitution.

When the state apparatus perverts the course of justice, evil consequences flow which undermine the premise on which civilised society can be based.

It is to lift the lid on state sponsored perversion of justice and perjured statements obtained through torture which involved criminalising of the very custodians of law that the PPP Parliamentarians proposes Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The purpose of the Commission is to acknowledge victims of political injustice who fell prey to state sponsored perversion of justice to meet the ends of an unholy agenda to destroy trust in public representatives and promote militarism of society.

Judicial Relief

Easy dispensation of justice is the right of citizens. Too many suffer because of inability to access justice.

Innocent people languish in jails without the funds to obtain judicial relief. Each High Court will appoint Judicial Ombudsman to visit Jails and Thanas providing relief to those deserving it.

Number of courts will be increased as well as number of judges to ensure that cases are dealt with expeditiously.

Special courts will be abolished.

Law of foreclosure will be examined in discussion with the Judiciary. It is strong foreclosures in developed countries that enables the middle classes to obtain credit for purchases such as apartments, cars, televisions and similar products where lenders know that defaulters can be taken to task without a stay order.

Small Causes Courts and Family Court at the local bodies' level can assist fair and easy justice.

More women and minority judges will be inducted into the judiciary.

Constitutional Package

To fulfil Quaid-e-Azam and Quaid-e-Awam’s dream of a Federal and democratic Pakistan where the provinces enjoy full autonomy, the Concurrent List will be abolished in keeping with the Constitutional commitments.

The establishment of a Constitutional Court will be examined in consultation with the Pakistan Human Rights Commission as well as other bodies.

Tenures of District Councils will be fixed and free from interference other than through the judicial process to establish a pluralistic society where different parties can exercise power at different levels. Simultaneously preventing a culture of exclusion and winner takes all. This can enhance tolerance and accommodation within the body politic of the country.

Election Commission will be constitutionally protected although its actions can be scrutinised through appeal to high courts. Election Tribunal cases must be decided expeditiously.

Closed Party List SystemPPP Parliamentarians supports technocrat and Women’s seats on closed Party system. The system of Open Party List System is untenable in a country where literacy rates are low. Moreover ballot papers will become books as each party nominates scores of candidates that voters must scan and mark with differing symbols.

Senate

PPP Parliamentarians supports the election of the Senate members by provincial assemblies through open single transferable vote.

Corruption

The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians supports an independent and impartial anti corruption office to investigate every citizen of Pakistan irrespective of the office that he or she may hold.

The anti corruption body will conduct itself according to the universal principles of due process rather than become a handmaiden of hostile regimes against political opponents.

CENSUS

An accurate census is essential to good planning. The census held previously will be examined by a Commission to see whether it met the test of accuracy given strong complaints made about its findings. PPP Parliamentarians will hold timely census and ensure that the census results are accurate enabling resource distribution equitably in the country considering citizens of different provinces as equal Pakistanis.

Human Rights

The plight of women, minorities, children and the wretched of the earth is miserable. It is a deep stigma on our national conscience that disadvantaged groups suffered a series of punishments, laws, public humiliations and gang rapes while the state watched helplessly.

The PPP Parliamentarians pledges to protect the minorities, women and children of Pakistan. It pledges to protect the weak from the strong. It pledges to undo laws that are discriminatory against minorities, women and children. It calls upon the people of Pakistan to give it a constitutional majority to build a society where the weak and underprivileged are freed from archaic state laws.

The PPP Parliamentarians pledges to promote universal female literacy and protection of the child to honour our women and our future generations.

The PPP Parliamentarians will encourage non governmental organisations as watchdogs for the empowerment of women and minorities.

Police Reforms The independence of the Police system will be encouraged enabling the Police force to groom a professional body which is tough on crime and criminals. The unfortunate history of political taint which demoralises the police force and oppresses the citizen will be done away with. Police will be treated on par with military officers and entitled to similar benefits. A strong and professional police force is necessary to combat the forces of internal terrorism.

Use of torture will be prohibited and police training institutes upgraded with modern means of forensic evidence and interrogation. Local recruitment of the police force will be encouraged with matriculation as a minimum qualification.

Allegations of torture and corruption will be examined by a Police Ombudsman appointed by the Inspector General of Police.

PPP Parliamentarians prison reforms aim at reforming prisoners enabling them to integrate into society as responsible citizens. Concept of hard labour is outdated and can be abolished. Prisoners will be encouraged to take classes to learn skills and earn points towards good behaviour early release. They will be paid proper wages for work undertaken and be entitled to purchase facilities for themselves including television, computers and other products. Communal rooms will provide internet access to selected sites as well as reading material in libraries which is commensurate with modern publications. Exercise classes will be held separately for men and women prisoners for those wishing to avail of it. Medical attention will be given promptly. Proper seating arrangements for interviews will be made.

Prisoners will have the right to make available transport for going to court hearings in the event of vehicle shortage.

Presently prison administration is a prisoner of the home secretary. Prison administrations will be given rules within which to function and will be autonomous in their functioning. Complaints by government or prisoners can be made to the Home Secretary and officers which will be reviewable before the judicial authorities. Postings to prisons will be by tenure and officials transferred earlier only on the basis of written complaints which can form basis of a discrimination appeal.

Female prisoners will be housed in separate quarters and looked after by female staff. No male staff will be permitted entrance to the female quarters. Female quarters will have similar facilities as male quarters with additional child care areas.

Labour

Created as the Party to protect Labour rights, the PPP introduced the reform for minimum wages, cost of living, social security, medical cover, old age benefits, pensions and other such measures for the betterment of the working classes.

The PPP is proud of its record where Labour rights were fully protected. PPP Parliamentarians opposes retrenchment of Labour. It pledges to hold high the banner of Labour rights with a view to ensuring that Labour enjoys a good working relationship with the government while enhancing productivity.

PPP Parliamentarians is opposed to contract labour as well as retrenchment of labour. It supports wage increases for labour given high rates of inflation. It supports laws in accordance with the International Labour Organisation.

Review the situation with a view to providing relief to retrenched workers. Additionally use Labour welfare funds to build residential colonies for workers. Establish cadet colleges for children of labor force.

Farmers

The vast majority of the people of the country are farmers eking out an existence in challenging circumstances where water is in shortage.

It is the job of government to ensure that the farmers get a good deal for their hard work.

The PPP government ensured a farmer friendly policy which gave the country high growth rates and productivity with yields going up from zero per cent to seven percent. The Awami tractor scheme providing tractors at one and a half lacs was part of the initiative that helped farmers for which the anti people forces implemented false cases against PPP leadership.

The PPP Parliamentarians pledges to look after the farmer with timely inputs of fertilisers, seeds and water. It promises to give the farmer his due where prices are concerned and relieve him from poverty through appropriate access to credit.

The threat of water logging and salinity will be countered with greater resource commitment by the government and the completion of canals to serve that purpose. Small hydel dams begun under the last government will continue.

Shortage of drinking and agricultural water is the greatest challenge in the twenty first century which will be met through the close cooperation between government, farmers and technical experts.

Local Government

The PPP Parliamentarians is committed to devolution of power in accordance with its new social contract.

It supports constitutional terms for district governments. It supports district governments which are independent of the Federal authority and have access to an appropriate and independent fiscal base within the parameters of provincial autonomy.

Media The twenty first century is the century of transparency and openness and of a free press. Ministry of Information will be abolished. Each Ministry’s press department can liase with the public on issues relating to it. Journalists from private sector will be eligible for induction on contract basis and on competitive market rates.

Elected Press Bodies will be asked to establish a Complaints Commission on the basis of the British system of Press Complaints.

Private sector can freely establish television and radio stations without government permission subject to operating within a legal framework.

A free and vibrant press is the greatest guarantor against tyranny and oppression.

Defence

The PPP gave Pakistan a strong defence to safeguard its territorial integrity and national independence. The Quaid-e-Awam gave Pakistan the nuclear program to achieve nuclear parity with India. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto gave Pakistan missile capability to enable the country to match the Indian missile threat.

The PPP Parliamentarians believes that a sound economic base promotes a strong defence. It seeks to identify Pakistan’s core defence needs to enable the country to meet its defence targets.

The PPP Parliamentarians opposes waste and extravagance through non audited accounts and re-appropriation of budgets. It plans putting in place a parliamentary committee to inspect defence accounts which will also be submitted to the defence committee of the cabinet.

Concerned about corruption in defence deals, the PPP Parliamentarians plans greater transparency in defence purchases and a rationalisation of defence expenditure to make the armed forces fit and professional as they were before the military dictatorship of General Zia in discharging their core responsibility of defending the territorial integrity and frontiers of Pakistan.

The educational curriculum in defence institutes was prepared to train an officer cadre that could uphold the forces of military rule. That curriculum will be revised to ensure military respect for democracy, democratic institutions and elected officials. The true face of military dictatorship will be open in courses to encourage officers to prevent the past with a view to building a better future in accordance with the principles of Quaid e Azam.

Foreign Policy

The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians opposes terrorism and will continue the policy of the present regime to ally itself against the forces of terror.

The PPP Parliamentarians supports the right of self determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It supports the creation of a Palestinian state which gives security to the Palestinians.

The PPP Parliamentarians seeks good neighbourly relations with its neighbours

The PPP Parliamentarians, without prejudice to the UN Security Council Resolutions, supports open and safe borders at the Line of Control to socially unite the Kashmiri people. It notes that India and China have a border disputer and yet enjoy tension free relations. It seeks to reduce tensions with India through peaceful negotiations to outstanding Disputes and issues.

The PPP Parliamentarians supports a South Asian Free Trade Zone. It believes that such a zone can enhance markets and job opportunities as well as enable the South Asian countries to formulate consensus views for World Trade Organisation and other international bodies that are coming into being to ensure that they are supportive of the rights of the people of South Asia.

The war against terror focuses attention on the danger of rogue elements accessing nuclear systems of countries with inadequate command and control systems. The nuclear control and command centres as well as nuclear safety measures will be ensured by the PPP Parliamentarians government to allay international fears and safeguard the nuclear assets.

PPP Parliamentarians will continue to cement and enhance relations with Pakistan’s traditional friends.

Pakistan Embassies and Government Functionaries

Pakistan Embassy staff and government functionaries will be given consumer friendly courses to train them in meeting the demands of the citizens with courtesy. Too often the staff in the embassies and offices are viewed as masters rather than facilitators of the public. This will change as the colonial training is shed for modern citizen dealing.

Conclusion Faith, Freedom, Fundamental Human Rights and Equal Opportunity for a prosperous Pakistan is the birthright of every Pakistani. It is a birthright too often snatched at the point of the gun from the citizens by the very men who are to guard and defend us. This can stop to enable the people and the country to march with confidence and courage, with pride and dignity, with progress and prosperity into the twenty first century.

Pakistan is a great Federation. Its multilingual, multicultural society is its strength. Its sons and daughters are its true assets, the bright face of its future, the promise of all our tomorrows.

The Pakistan Peoples Party is the only Federal, democratic and equal opportunity Party that can guarantee to our great people a great future. The PPP worker is selfless and committed to the values of Faith, freedom, fundamental human rights, family values and a wholesome society based on the rule of law and human dignity.

The founding principle of the Party Islam is our religion places a responsibility on each PPP supporter to reach out in a spirit of accommodation and tolerance to all faiths, to prevent the state from interfering in the religious rights of the citizens (which breeds sectarianism) and to treat people of all faiths with respect enabling them to enjoy religious freedom and equality before the law.

The second principle of the PPP ideology is that democracy is our policy. The PPP commitment to freedom and fundamental rights, including freedom from hunger and want, is written in the blood of its martyrs and in the red marks of lashes on the back of its workers. It is written in the suffering and sacrifice of its leaders the greatest of whom was Quaid e Awam. He faced the gallows refusing to bow before tyranny defending the human rights of our citizens to the last of his breath.

In every age, including today, PPP leaders and office bearers are behind bars, in exile, banned from travelling defending their Party at greater personal cost to their families and themselves. We are proud of our workers who kept high their morale even as political orphans and opportunists colluded in the murder of justice to eliminate the one political counterforce to the powers of the Establishment.

The third PPP principle is that musawaat is our economy. Believing in a humane economic system, the PPP Parliamentarians aims at creating a just and equitable society with equal opportunity for all its citizens. The gap between the rich and the poor is one that can be bridged given the commitment to reach out to the underprivileged, the downtrodden and the discriminated. The PPP Parliamentarians is proud of being the voice of the poor, the working classes and the middle classes. Our policies, while dedicated to the underprivileged created conditions that enabled the business and trading classes to prosper.

We believe that humans are one chain and by helping one part of the human chain, all the interconnecting nets are also helped. We believe that violence begets violence and peace begets peace. Our leaders reject revenge to devote themselves to the challenges of governance producing a society that grows and develops to the advantage of the citizens where the writ of government provides security to the citizen as well as opportunity.

The final principle of the PPP is All Power to the People. We believe that Almighty Allah has blessed the citizens of this world as His trustees. The people are God’s agents and it is the verdict of the people freely expressed that can bring true blessings to a land and enable us as Muslims to co-exist in peace and harmony with Non Muslims to build together a world of peace, freedom, justice and economic opportunity.

These four principles are described by the PPP workers as Bhuttoism, the policy that guides us in our decision making and enables us to work with dedication and determination to fulfil the dream of Allama Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam.

Vote for us: Vote for Peace, Freedom and Economic Opportunity

Peace, Freedom and Economic Opportunity are the principles that can overcome the forces of hate and revenge and build our pure land into green fields of human advancement.